PJ1 Work-based Project Assessment: 13,000 Words

Summary

Assessment title:  PJ1: Work-based Project 13,000 words

Weighting:  85%

Submission dates:  Friday, 28^th January 2022, 11.59pm (23:59) Resit due Friday 22^nd April 2022

Please read this assessment brief in its entirety before starting work on the Assessment Task.

You are to produce a 13,000-word independent piece of work-based research in the form of a project report, which investigates or examines a specific issue/topic in your workplace. Focusing on the workplace or organisation you work in, apply appropriate research techniques and analyses, and consequently provide relevant recommendations for the organisation in consideration of the identified issue/topic.

All students should be prepared to present their primary data sets within their appendix, to support their submission, and the University and teaching team reserve the right to request access to this data at any time.  Furthermore, all students should be prepared to undertake a viva voce to support their submission.  The University and teaching team reserve the right to undertake an oral exam at any time.

Your primary research must be undertaken following the approval of an Ethics Application that must include all supporting documentation (eg research instrument, participant information sheet, informed consent form, employer consent etc.)   If you do not have Ethics Approval for your research, or you conduct your data-gathering before Approval, your submission will be an automatic AG (fail).

Detail:

Please follow this format for your final Work-based research project:

Title page- The following details should be stated on your title page:

• Title
• Student name
• Student ID
• Project Supervisor’s name
• The University Logo
• Your Faculty of study

Acknowledgements - Thank any people that have assisted/contributed to your project.

Contents page - Provide a list of the sections of your project with page numbers.  Provide a list of the figures and tables presented in your project report, if applicable.

• What is the setting/ context for your work-based project?
• What are the aim and objectives of your project?
• What is/ are your research question(s)
• Describe how your project will assist the organization that is under study, if relevant and applicable. Describe the consultation process you have undertaken with the organization, if appropriate.

What are the key concepts and theories that provide some background for your work-based project?  Discussing these ensures a thorough review of relevant studies related to your work-based project.  Make sure you consult a wide range of relevant literature/ studies in the field you have chosen.  Ensure this is a critical review, not just descriptive or an annotated bibliography.  All sources should be correctly attributed using the Harvard Referencing format.

• What methodology did you adopt and why?
• What is the principle/ paradigm or philosophy that guides & shapes your work-based project and why (example Positivist, interpretivist; inductive/deductive, etc.)?
• Who is your research sample and why? How did you select your sample/ participants?
• What methods did you employ for collecting/ gathering data and why?
• How did you ensure adequate ethical consideration?
• What are your hypotheses, if applicable?
• How did you analyse your data (analytical and statistical procedures employed) and why?

• Provide clear and logical presentation of the findings or results of your project, sighting corresponding examples/ instances from your collected/ generated data.  These might include tables, graphs or other diagrams.
• What do your findings show? Give examples from your data. Refer to any diagrams, questionnaire results, graphs, quotations from interviewees etc.
• Ensure your results correspond with your stated research objectives/ research questions, or hypotheses (if applicable).

• Provide a critical discussion of your findings/ results aimed at addressing your research objectives or answering your stated research question(s)/ hypotheses. Refer to any diagrams, questionnaire results, interview quotes, etc. discussed/ presented in the Results/ Findings Chapter
• What are the implications of your findings?
• How do your findings link with existing research? How far do your findings contradict/confirm the literature you refer to in the literature review?
• What have you found that is new?

Conclusion and Recommendations:

• What conclusions do you reach as a result of doing your work-based project?  Summarise these.
• What are the limitations of your project?
• What recommendations would you make to the host organisation?
• How would you implement your recommendations? Consider practicalities, resources and cost.  You may wish to develop action plans for your recommendations.
• How are your recommendations innovative or entrepreneurial?  Why is this important?

Reference List – A full list of references must be included for all sources that you refer to and shown in the Harvard Referencing format. Download the full Harvard Guide from the Library Skills Hub.

Guidance on appendices – You must include:

• Examples of raw data, i.e. a data set of questionnaire responses, or partial transcript of interviews;
• Copies of signed supervision forms for each of the six supervision meetings you attended
• A copy of your UoN FBL Ethics Approval Form, signed by your supervisor
• Your appendix should also include any material which is of interest but which is peripheral to the project, for example, consent forms, tables of results, graphs, photos, surveys, interviews, etc.

Word Limits (where appropriate)

The maximum word limit for this assessment is 13,000 words.

Ethics Approval

In accordance with the Assessment and Feedback Policy, as stated in section 4.40 where a submission exceeds the stipulated word limit by more than 10%, the submission will only be marked up to and including the additional 10%.  Anything over this will not be included in the final grade for the assessment item.  Abstracts, bibliographies, reference lists, appendices and footnotes are excluded from any word limit requirements.

In line with section 4.41 of the same Policy, where a submission is notably under the word limit, the full submission will be marked on the extent to which the learning objectives have been met.

The learning outcomes that are being assessed in this assessment are:

On successful completion of the module, with minimal guidance, you will be able to...

1. a) Select, evaluate and synthesise literature associated with a work-based issue/topic, identified in consultation with the host organisation.
2. b) Critically evaluate appropriate research methodologies and methods, selecting and deploying these within a specific work context, to investigate/address a work-based issue/topic.
3. c) Critique and extend concepts relating to the chosen work-based topic/issue by gathering, analysing and integrating project findings with relevant literature.
4. d) Make recommendations arising from the work-based project, that demonstrate sensitivity to, and understanding of, the particular work context.

Your grade will depend on the extent to which you meet these learning outcomes in the way relevant for this assessment. Please see the grading rubric on NILE for further details of the criteria against which you will be assessed. 

Specific support sessions for this assessment will be provided by the module team and notified through NILE, You can also access individual support and guidance for your assessments from the Learning Development team. The Skills Hub is another useful source of online support for assessments and academic skills.

Unless this is a group assessment, the work you produce must be your own, with work taken from any other source properly referenced and attributed. For the avoidance of doubt this means that it is an infringement of academic integrity and, therefore, academic misconduct to ask someone else to carry out all or some of the work for you, whether paid or unpaid, or to use the work of another student whether current or previously submitted.

For further guidance on what constitutes plagiarism, contract cheating or collusion, or any other infringement of academic integrity, please read the University’s Academic Integrity and Misconduct Policy.  Also useful resources to help with understanding academic integrity are available from UNPAC .

N.B. The penalties for academic misconduct are severe and can include failing the assessment, failing the module and expulsion from the university.

To submit your work, please go to the ‘Submit your work’ area on the NILE site and use the relevant submission point to upload your report. The deadline for this is 11.59pm (UK local time) on the date of submission. Please note that essays and text based reports should be submitted as Word documents and not PDFs or Mac files.

Written work submitted to TURNITIN will be subject to anti-plagiarism detection software.  Turnitin checks student work for possible textual matches against internet available resources and its own proprietary database. Work

When you upload your work correctly to TURNITIN you will receive a receipt which is your record and proof of submission.  If your assessment is not submitted to TURNITIN, rather than a receipt, you will see a green banner at the top of the screen that denotes successful submission.

N.B Work emailed directly to your tutor will not be marked.

For first sits, if an item of assessment is submitted late and an extension has not been granted, the following will apply:

Within one week of the original deadline – work will be marked and returned with full feedback, and awarded a maximum bare pass grade.
More than one week from original deadline – grade achievable LG (L indicating late).

For resits there are no allowances for work submitted late and it will be treated as a non-submission.

Please see the Assessment and Feedback Policy for full information on the processes related to assessment, grading and feedback.  You will also find the generic grading criteria for achievement at 

These can be accessed through clicking on the Feedback and Grades tab on NILE. Feedback will be provided by a rubric with summary comments.